18th World Poetry Festival of Venezuela opens its doors

Caracas, Jul 8 (RHC) Poets from Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Cuba and Venezuela will participate today in the opening of the 18th World Poetry Festival, which will last until July 13 throughout the South American nation.

More than 200 national poets and 22 poets from Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, North America, Africa and the Middle East will take part in this invitation to verse and the word, which will open this Monday afternoon at the Bolivar Theater in Caracas.

The World Poetry Festival will pay tribute to Leonardo Ruiz, whose book "Esto, palabra, eres" will accompany the presentation of this new edition, announced by the poet and Minister of Communication and Information Freddy Ñáñez.

Each edition is about " reading our own country, reading our people, reading the deep diversity that connects us with the creative world", toll the press the also sectorial vice-president of Communication, Culture and Tourism.

Ruiz, 65, is the author of books of essays and poems such as Heráclito/Caín (1999); Libro de muertos (1999); Las promesas de Solo (2001); El poeta perdido y otros textos (2007); Leer Llano (2007); Palabras de la poli (2008); Poetas, poetisas y otras anomalías (2003) and El ambiente y nosotros (2004).

The six-day event includes workshops, recitals, talks, educational activities and artistic presentations throughout the country in libraries, high schools, theaters, cultural centers, bookstores in the South and universities, organizers said.

As part of the programmed activities, poets from Italy, Cuba and Honduras will develop creative writing workshops for all audiences and a lecture on the late bard Ramón Palomares will be given by the National Literature Prize winner Gabriel Jiménez Emán.

The World Poetry Festival has invited poets from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Belgium, Chile, Cuba, the United States, El Salvador, Ecuador, Honduras, Italy, Libya, Martinique, Mexico, Paraguay, Palestine, the Netherlands, Syria and Uruguay.

The poets from Matanzas (western Cuba), Luis Lorente, two-time winner of the Casa de las Americas Prize (2004 and 2021), and Charo Guerra, poet, editor and journalist and author of several collections of poetry and books of short stories, will participate on behalf of the largest of the Antilles. (Source: Prensa Latina)